The official 2010 F1 teams list published today by the FIA has confirmed long-standing rumours the new Manor entry will be branded by former Brawn sponsors Virgin.

The FIA has also noted the absence of an entry from Toyota and has not yet substituted it with another team – including new BMW owners Sauber.

Toyota may have to pay a fine to the FIA for not entering next year despite having signed the Concorde Agreement. They may be able to avoid it if they arrange for someone to take over their team and run it in F1.

Zoran Stefanovic has been rumoured to be interested in taking over the outfit and using their TF110 designs for next season. He currently has a case against the FIA being heard by the European Commission about how the 2010 team entries were handled.

Meanwhile BMW, which does not have an entry for 2010 having refused to sign the Concorde Agreement and subsequently quit F1, has cancelled the sale of the team to Qadbak and sold it to Peter Sauber instead. That surely raises the prospect of it being on the grid next year.

Also of interest in the entry list is the confirmation the 1 Malaysia entry will be known as ‘Lotus’, despite having little in the way of ties to the historic Lotus team. Is it right that such a historic name is being used in this way?

The numbers have been allocated for the four new teams with Lotus getting the lowest pair and Virgin the highest.

Although the list reveals no new information about the driver line-up, it does show Bruno Senna is down as the ‘second’ Campos driver, which could be an indication the team is expecting to find a more experienced driver for the other seat to pair with the rookie.

As for Virgin, it’s surprising they’ve allowed the official news of their Manor deal to slip out in this fashion. Did they not want to make a proper announcement with all the publicity it would bring?

No – the order they joined takes priority over all the others. The fact that Senna will be carrying a numer so closely related to his personal sponsor points to it being a case of the teams being allowed to nominate which numbers they wanted.

i hope these Rumors come true and to see a TOYOTA powered car on the grid next year. that would keep me happy. as for sauber, BMW screwed them and screwed them hard on the pull out. no concorde agreement means no entry and if in some way toyota gets denied over sauber i expect the guys at cologne to fire back since they have signed the concorde agreement. FIA has no choice but to let Toyota’s successors to race or waive the Fine imposed on Toyota and let sauber race. either way its in FIA and to some degree in Toyotas court.

We have 12 teams who have entered their names.Sauber is next using Ferrari engine with Nick & I will put Kilen on board.Then Toyota is expected to sell itself to Steven GP,so that in all puts 14 teams on grid on 2010.

Well, I’m not quite sure about it. Renault still have to confirm their participation despite have signed the concord agreement, and there are some risks in the new teams to finally put a car with drivers in next year grid. (USF1?)

I am really puzzled as to what is happening behind closed doors between FIA, Sauber and BMW. Surely if Sauber/BMW have agreed on the purchase/sale of the team, this would include some assurance from FIA that they would enter their car in 2010. But nothing of the kind seems to be present.

In regards to Toyota, it seems some kind of an announcement will be made regarding its entry in the near future:

Toyota Motorsport GmbH remains formally bound by the Concorde Agreement to put forward a team for participation, though it has indicated that it will not be in a position to do so. An announcement will be made regarding this entry in due course.

This indicates possibility that Toyota may sell the team and enter it under another name such as Stefan GP. I hope that happens.

Surely if Sauber/BMW have agreed on the purchase/sale of the team, this would include some assurance from FIA that they would enter their car in 2010.

I had heard the other way around. Sauber has agreed to buy the team, but the sale only will go through if there is a way to get them on the grid. Therefore, Sauber’s agreement came before the grid slot. If there is no grid slot, then the sale falls through.

It seems strange to me that Toyota, whether they signed any agreement or not, announced that they couldn’t afford to run a team in 2010, and yet get fined for it.
How come BMW, who haven’t apparently signed anything, don’t get fined, even though they don’t want to run a team either? Surely Sauber (or whoever) are going to have to pay extra to enter without first signing up?
So, in a sport which is trying to make things easier for smaller teams, you pay if you want to enter, and you pay if you want to leave, even though you’re broke anyway…..

It’s because BMW didn’t sign the concorde agreement which meant they have no obligation to race in F1 in 2010. However Toyota did sign the concorde agreement,thus they do have an obligation to race, it’s basically a contract, you break the contract, you get fined. It’s basic legal process. So thats why BMW don’t have to pay a fine and Toyota probably will.

Does anyone know what Toyota F1 and BMW Sauber are actually doing at the moment, are they carrying on designing and building next years car or are they laying people off and shutting the factories down. I know BMW are giving F1 tests to some new drivers as they had agreed to do before they decided to pull out but thatâ€™s all I know.

Also I thought Toyota had previously said they did not intend to sell their F1 operation, the actual factory, so if someone did replace them they would have to have their own F1 setup which is a bit short notice to be ready for next season.

Its cynical marketing until Ant Davidson parks that Malaysian beauty on pole in Bahrain. Then it will be straight on the phone from Norfolk Louts owners club to get some publicity with the elise owners club. I pray that this happens. Go Ant!

Well, they are owned by Lotus, and partly run from old Lotus premises… so the name does seem rather appropriate…. anyway for me Lotus was never Lotus after Chapman died.

Interestingly I donâ€™t think Lotus ever ran in F1 as just â€śLotusâ€ť, that as a trade mark was only used for road cars. They were either â€śTeam Lotusâ€ť or â€śTeam Lotus â€“ Fordâ€ť etc or ran under the sponsors name such as â€śJohn Player Specialsâ€ť…… even racing the road cars they were “Lotus Racing”….. so strictly speaking â€śLotus-Cosworthâ€ť is a new name in F1….. oh what it is to be pedantic!!!

No, don’t expand it to Q4! Under the current rules, we’ll see eight drivers eliminated in Q1, and eight in Q2. It’s going to be much harder to get to Q3, and I’m willing to bet we’ll see some desperate driving as driers try and get out of the drop-zone, which has the potential to produce some interesting grids, and therefore interesting races. If you expand it to Q4, the presure is off.

Virgin has bought the rights to sell sponsor space on the Manor GP car as well as the naming rights. It means Virgin gets a whole lot of publicity and offsets most of the cost through advertising income. Much as Marlboro does with Ferrari.

I would be disappointed to not see Sauber/BMW on grid in some guise next year. Is there any reason at all why the grid can’t be expanded to 14 teams? Seems to me with the natural attrition that will occur with the new teams over the first couple of teams anyway, building up the numbers now to account for that would make sense to me.

I think Williams are the only team to publically say they are opposed to a 14th team which is why they have received some criticism from some fans, but other teams are supposed to be against the idea also.

The arguments against a 14th team are that some tracks just donâ€™t have the capacity for 14 teams for example garage space, and that financially F1 cannot support 14 teams with not enough sponsors etc.